


a common bond (from the galaxy and beyond)

by narumitsu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ADHD Lance, Autistic Allura (Voltron), Autistic Keith (mentioned only), Back to Earth, Bisexual Allura (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Broganes (mentioned only), Canon Gay Character, Fluff, Gay Shiro (Voltron), Gen, JuLance, Keith/Lance (mentioned only), Platonic Relationships, Post-Season/Series 06, Shopping Malls, Team Bonding, just two bi icons and their gay space dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-06 23:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15205406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narumitsu/pseuds/narumitsu
Summary: Lance invites Allura to go shopping with him at the mall, and her suggestion to include Shiro allows Lance to see a side of his hero that he had no idea existed.Or: If season 7 won't give me fun, fluffy bonding between this squad complete with an emotional scene between Shiro and Lance then I'll just have to quiznaking give it to myself.





	a common bond (from the galaxy and beyond)

**Author's Note:**

> This is... mostly really silly and kinda got away from me as I kept wanting to include more things in it, so I hope it's enjoyable! It was pretty fun to write tbh.
> 
> Yes, the title is based on a MLP song, it was the best I could come up with and my working title was literally "can i get uhhh bi squad bonding", so -shrug-
> 
> Also, important: this fic used to have Lance, Allura, and Shiro all as bisexual at the time of posting. Shiro has since been confirmed as gay, so I've edited it accordingly!

Lance, Allura, and Shiro had a lot in common: they enjoyed looking at the stars. They loved their homes and families more than anything. They thought pandas were adorable. They had all somehow gotten caught up in the middle of an intergalactic war piloting the limbs of a giant robot lion. They liked fantasy novels. And today, the most important things that they all shared were that they loved shopping, and they loved eating ice cream.

Because it was these two things that had led them to spend a day off shopping together. Actually, it was Lance’s idea—and Allura’s, to an extent. He’d approached her first, upon realizing that she loved the space mall but had never been to a shopping mall on earth.

“Hey, Allura,” Lance had said, “wanna go to the mall with me today?”

The old Lance, the one who had a huge crush on Princess Allura of Altea as well as a habit of automatically putting on a flirty attitude around any girl that wasn’t Pidge, probably would've said something like “heya, princess, how would you like to go out shopping with yours truly?” and worn a confident smirk. But the current Lance, the one who was over all of that and was now newly dating Keith, instead spoke to her seriously as one of his best friends. And that was the way that he—that both of them—preferred it.

“Lance, I was trying to read,” Allura said, rolling her eyes. She took off the noise-blocking headphones she’d been wearing, ones that had once worked perfectly but were now too worn out to be useful. She made a mental note to see if Pidge could make her a new pair like she had for herself.

Lance couldn’t actually get an apology in for the interruption before Allura slammed her book shut and instantly perked up.

“But the book can always wait! Did you say the mall?”

“Yeah! You’ve never been shopping on earth and I just know you’d love it! There are plenty of sparkly things you can buy,” he added in a singsong voice, “and we can get ice cream!”

“Oh, that sounds delightful! Let’s do it! However, may I ask you one favor?”

“You’re not gonna ask me to do something embarrassing, are you?” Lance questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no, of course not!” Allura replied with a laugh. “Actually, I was simply wondering if you could invite Shiro as well.”

“Shiro? Really? Does he even _like_ shopping? Or ice cream?”

“He does, yes! But more importantly, I think it may be good for him to get out and have some fun with us instead of staying here all the time. So will you please invite him for me?”

“Well, then, you got it, Princess!” Lance said. “We’re inviting Shiro!”

* * *

Lance may have agreed to do this, but his leg wouldn’t stop shaking as he made his way to the Garrison dorm where Shiro was staying. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to invite him to go with them. No, it was the opposite: Allura was right, Shiro needed to have fun while they were on earth. It was a great idea. He just didn’t know how to ask.

Because yeah, the two of them had bonded a bit during the trip back to earth when Shiro helped Lance come to terms with the fact that he was bisexual. Sure, they had been through a ton together, and of course, they were part of the same team and they were friends. But they had still never really gotten to casually hang out before, and that was a different matter altogether.

How was it different, you might ask? Because even before they started traveling the galaxy and fighting evil together, Lance already saw Shiro, the pilot of the Kerberos Mission, as a hero— _his_ hero. Meeting him personally, learning the true extent of all that he’d been through in order to be here right now, only solidified how totally awesome he was in Lance’s mind. And how in the world was he supposed to just go up to his hero and say “dude, let’s hang out”?

He had no idea, but he supposed he’d just have to wing it. His palms were sweating as he took a pause, held his hand up to knock on the door, and then—

“Lance?”

And then Shiro walked out of the room on his own first. Great.

“Uh, hey Shiro! I was just...” Lance stopped and spent a few seconds thinking of an excuse, anything to avoid having to actually do this, settling on the first thing that came to his mind: “...Looking for Keith’s room?”

“Keith’s room is on the complete opposite side of the hall,” Shiro said, his eyebrow raised and a hint of suspicion in his tone, “and you’ve gone there enough times to know that.”

Lance groaned at himself both audibly and internally; he should’ve known Shiro of all people was too smart for a lame excuse like that.

“What is it you’re really here for?” His expression and tone both softened, changing from suspicion to concern. “If there’s something bothering you, you know that you don’t have to be afraid to tell me. You can talk to me anytime.”

“Everything’s fine!” Lance half-lied, his voice unusually high-pitched. The only thing not fine was how incredibly awkward he felt. “I was just wondering if—well, it was sort of Allura’s idea, but—I invited her to go to the mall and get ice cream and then she said you would probably wanna go too so I came over here to tell you that, but then I got really nervous and you showed up before I could knock and—“

“Lance, slow down,” Shiro interrupted, his words somehow filling the atmosphere with a calming presence. “Are you... trying to ask me to go on a shopping trip with you and Allura? Is that really all that’s going on here?

“Sorry, yeah,” Lance said, taking a deep breath. He still willingly shook his leg to distract himself, but his nerves mostly calmed down. “Allura really wants you to come with us, so will you?”

“You know, I do need to get out.” Shiro smiled and Lance briefly forgot why he was nervous in the first place. “I’ll be there, just give me a minute to get ready, okay?”

“No problemo, bro!” Lance replied with an uneasy fake grin, as he walked backward out of the hall doing finger guns.

He immediately wished he hadn’t done any of that. This was _Shiro_ , and he just went over there and said “no problemo, bro” and made finger guns? Really? Apparently, Allura didn’t need to ask him to do something embarrassing in order for it to happen. He could only hope Shiro didn’t notice somehow.

* * *

The three of them reached the local shopping mall, and no matter how many times Allura had told Lance before leaving that he shouldn’t worry, that Shiro was just a regular person like them, it didn’t stop his mind from racing. What if Shiro secretly thought Lance was weird this whole time they’d known each other? What if Shiro didn’t like that he was dating Keith? What if he was only here because one of his _actual_ friends was? What if he didn’t really like shopping and Allura just thought he did for some reason? What if Lance dropped ice cream on his shirt and made him mad? What if—

“So, what do you all say we go get some ice cream first? I, for one, am starving!” Allura purposely cut in. She had looked over and seen Lance tapping his fingers against his hip and looking down at the ground, and knew that she could stop his anxious thoughts with a distraction.

Lance jolted his head up and shouted “Yeah, that’s a great idea!”

And with that, the group consisting of a sharpshooting Cuban teenager, a professional astroexplorer, and a princess from another planet made their way toward the food court, determined to have a fun day on earth together.

* * *

Inside, Lance took one glance at the ice cream shop’s menu and immediately placed an order for his favorite ice cream flavor: dulce de leche.

That wasn’t just Lance’s favorite flavor because it was delicious—it was, but more importantly, it reminded him of home, of summer days in Varadero when his mother would help him and his siblings make their own homemade ice cream. This might have sounded extremely cheesy, but Lance honestly thought that the most delicious thing about dulce de leche ice cream was the happy memories it brought him.

“Hmm... I just don’t know what flavor I should order,” Allura mused. She sat to the left of Lance and peered at the menu, the various flavors equally familiar and unfamiliar to her.

“Well,” Shiro said, “do you have a favorite?”

“No,” she sighed, “But I used to. I once loved juniberry ice cream. But of course, juniberries were native to Altea...”

“...Oh. I’m sorry, Princess.”

“No, it’s all right, really,” she replied with a sad smile. “Do you have any suggestions, Lance?”

Lance obviously had no idea what juniberries tasted like, but maybe there was something similar, he thought. He looked over the menu and quickly zeroed in on the word “blueberry.”

“Have you ever had blueberry ice cream?”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever even had blueberries. But if they’re anything like juniberries, then I’m sure they’re delicious!”

If Allura was being honest, she knew that no berry from earth would ever be the same as juniberries were. She desperately hoped that someday, she’d come across another planet where juniberries grew that she hadn’t known about, and then she could have back just one piece of her home. But for now, she supposed blueberries would have to do.

“All right, a double scoop blueberry ice cream cone for the princess, then! And, uh,"—calm yourself, Lance reminded himself, he’s just a normal person—"how about you, Shiro?"

“I think I’ll have cookies and cream,” Shiro replied, a relaxed smile on his face.

“I still think it’s hilarious that that’s your favorite flavor,” Allura said with a small laugh.

“Wait, why?”

“Well, I mean, isn’t it obvious?” Allura didn’t quite know how to explain it, but looking at the white-haired man who seemed to only own monochrome t-shirts, pants, and shoes, it did seem rather obvious to her what was funny.

“Sorry, I’m just not getting it.”

Again, Lance forgot he was supposed to be anxious and blurted out, “Man, have you seen yourself in the mirror? You look just like you _are_ cookies and cream!”

At that, Shiro burst out laughing. And that was it, Lance thought, his hero thought he was weird and he should just go home and—

“You’re so right!” Shiro said in between his laughter. “I don’t know how I didn’t pick up on that!”

“Yes, exactly!” said Allura. “Thank you for explaining it, Lance.”

Lance breathed a sigh of relief—Shiro was laughing with him, not at him.

“By the way,” Shiro said, “I really appreciate you guys inviting me to come here with you! I haven’t actually had ice cream in... oh man, I honestly have no idea how long it’s been.”

“And I’m so glad that you decided to come! Can you believe that Lance asked me earlier if you even liked ice cream?”

“Really?” Shiro turned toward Lance, giving him a serious look. “Believe me, Adam and I could not have raised Keith if I didn’t like ice cream.”

“What do you mean?”

“He used to beg us to take him to get ice cream constantly when he was a kid, and we just couldn’t stand to say no to him,” he explained. “I think half of our budget back then went into Ben & Jerry's.”

“So, if you need ideas for where to take Keith on dates...” Allura said, winking at Lance.

“And for the record, his favorite is anything with chocolate in it,” Shiro added.

“Oh, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lance already wondered how this day could possibly be real, but he had no idea that it was only going to keep getting more unbelievable.

He finished his ice cream before the other two and began to stand up, but before he could, it seemed that gravity decided to force the last scoop of Shiro’s ice cream off of the cone and right onto Lance’s shirt.

Lance didn’t even care about the mess or the cold, but immediately broke out into laughter thinking about how he had worried about the exact opposite of what was happening.

“Oh no,” Shiro said, already getting up to grab a pile of napkins. “I’m sorry, La—wait, I just dropped ice cream on you. What’s so funny about that?”

“It’s nothing, I guess I just didn’t expect it!” Lance offered as a half-truthful explanation, taking the napkins from Shiro and attempting to clean his shirt.

“Do you... want me to buy you a new shirt?”

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that!” Lance exclaimed, barely letting him finish his sentence.

“Well, if you’re sure...” Shiro started to say, but Lance was already leaving the table.

* * *

As the three of them were exploring the mall, Allura leaned over and whispered something in Lance’s ear. He hesitantly agreed, a mischievous smirk spreading across her face.

“Shiro!” she shouted, “Did you know that on Altea, bisexual people celebrate their identity by having their friends buy things for them? It’s a pun:  _buy_ -sexual!”

“Yep, I heard the same thing from Coran!” Lance decided to fully go along with the joke, reasoning that he didn’t want to disappoint Allura. “So, actually, since I’m bi then that means you _should_ buy me a new shirt!”

“And you should buy me a sparkly new purse!” Allura added as Lance led them inside of a large electronics store.

“Wow, really? Interesting ritual,” Shiro said, attempting to mask the fact that he didn’t believe them in the slightest. “And _I'm_ the only one who has to do this? You and Lance don't have to buy things for each other as well?”

“Oh, no, you’ve got it all wrong! See, on Altea we always did it like this: if you have a group consisting of both gay people and bisexuals, then the gay ones will buy things for the bi ones! And it's you, me, and Lance right now, so...“

“Doesn’t that seem a little unfair?”

Just then, Lance held up a box with an pricey gaming console, the main thing (besides the ice cream) he had wanted to come to the mall to get in the first place.

“So,” he said in an exaggerated accusatory tone, “are you saying you’re _not_ gonna buy me this brand new console that comes bundled with the latest Zelda game? Isn’t that kinda—“

“ _Buy_ -phobic!” Allura interrupted, failing to resist the urge to finish Lance’s sentence for him. Not even Shiro could stop himself from catching the pun and laughing at it.

“Okay, listen, you two. I know you’re trying to prank me here. And I’ll admit it’s pretty funny,” Shiro said with a smirk on his face. “But honestly? You don’t have to lie to me in order for me to buy you gifts."

“Wait, you knew?”

”Allura looked like she was trying not to laugh this whole time.”

“Sorry, Shiro,” Allura said half-apologetically and half as if she was _still_ trying not to laugh. “I just had to see what you’d say."

“There's no need to apologize, but...” He looked back at Lance. “I don’t know if I have enough money for that.”

”Huh? Oh, no!” A wave of embarrassment came over Lance when he processed what Shiro meant. “No, I was just kidding! I was already gonna buy this myself, so...!” 

He quickly turned his back and prepared to jog toward the checkout line, but to his surprise, Shiro called out his name.

“Hold on a second! Did you say that was bundled with the latest Zelda game?”

“Uh, yeah, why?”

“Because Zelda was one of the first series I ever played! Matt and Adam and I used to love it, back before—well, you know.”

At that moment, Lance began to question if he wasn't actually stuck inside some sort of weird dream.

”You... you wanna play on this too, then?“

"On one condition,” Shiro said, pulling out his wallet and mentally counting out half the cost of the system. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to let you spend that much money on something you’re offering to share. So, you have to let me help you pay for it.”

“...Really? Thanks,” Lance awkwardly mumbled as he took the money in his hand. 

“Sorry, but what is Zelda?” Allura asked.

“It’s a series of roleplaying games where you get to play as a knight named Link and save the world,” Shiro explained. “It has puzzle-solving, an engaging storyline, epic boss battles, everything you could really want out of a game!”

“Oh, that sounds so exciting!” Allura beamed. “I think I’d like to learn how to play it as well!”

Yep, Lance was definitely thinking this had to be a dream.

* * *

 They soon ended up in a clothing store, and Shiro was off in another part of it while Lance stood beside Allura looking through all the latest fashions. He was mainly in here to help her out—he’d already been shopping recently and picked up plenty of new clothes since they’d gotten to earth, so all he needed today was an unstained shirt. Allura, on the other hand, was in desperate need of some new outfits.

“How do you think this would look on me?” she asked, holding up a dark galaxy-print skirt.

“Hmm. A good start,” Lance said, already picking up something else to show her from nearby, “but what do you think of this pastel version?”

“That’s adorable!” Allura squealed. “What sort of top do you think I should I pair it with?”

Lance didn’t even need to think about the answer: “It’s up to you! But if I were wearing this sort of thing, I’d probably pair it with something simple. Just so the outfit’s not too busy, you know?”

“Yes, you’re right! Thank you for helping me figure out earth fashions!” Allura said with a genuine joy on her face. “But may I ask you one more thing?”

“About fashion? Absolutely!”

“What is a curling iron?”

The question took Lance completely by surprise. Too often, he’d forget that Allura was actually an alien—they had spent so much time around each other and were so similar that it was easy for the fact to slip his mind. It was things like this that made him remember.

“...It’s, you know, a tool that uses electric heating to curl your hair,” he explained as he perused the nearest aisles for clothes that she might like. “Did you not have them on Altea?”

“No, we had rather different methods of styling our hair. We also didn't have...” Allura picked up a set of eyeshadow from a nearby counter and examined it with confusion. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell what type of cosmetic this is meant to be.”

Lance turned around to see what she was holding and laughed softly. “Allura, this is just eyeshadow. Did Alteans not even have makeup?”

“I have never applied dark red powder to my eyes before in my life,” she said plainly, before clarifying: “We did have makeup, though. Just not in the strange forms that you have, nor did we wear it in such bold shades.”

“I see!” Lance nodded his head and with a confident grin, reached over above her and pulled a second eyeshadow palette off the shelf along with one other thing. “Then I bet you've never worn _glittery light pink_ eyeshadow or lip gloss either, have you?”

Allura's eyes lit up as she immediately grabbed both items out of Lance's hands. "I've never seen anything like these! I can't believe no one on Altea ever thought to invent glittery cosmetics!"

"Well, I can assure you that if _I_ had been there," Lance declared, "you'd have had all the glittery makeup you could ever need!"

"But," he continued to explain, "this isn't all you'll wanna buy. You should really find some blush, and mascara, lip liner, eyelash curlers—"

"Eyelash curlers?"

"You know what?" Lance took the eyeshadow and lip gloss back from her—along with the curling iron, just in case—and placed them into a basket alongside the clothes they had chosen. "Let's just finish shopping and I'll explain later."

"Well, all right then! I do hope you'll help me find all of this, though?"

"Of course I will! Here, come with me!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to another area of the store that was filled with makeup displays.

As soon as they stopped, Allura gasped and began to flap her hands excitedly. "Ooh, this is incredible! Where do we even start?"

Lance gestured toward the nail polish with his hands. "I don't know whether or not Alteans had nail polish," he said, "but I guarantee you'll love ours."

Allura and Lance began to look at all of the different colors, and a few minutes later, Shiro caught back up with the two of them.

"Hey, guys!" he called out. "How's everything going over here?"

"Hello, Shiro!" Allura exclaimed. "What's in those bags you're holding?"

"Actually," he replied with a smile, holding one of them out to her. "You said you wanted a sparkly purse earlier, so hopefully you like this one."

"And Lance," he continued, "I had to go to the toy store on the second floor to look for this, but..."

"For me?" Lance had been unconsciously avoiding looking at Shiro and felt a pang of guilt. "But, you already helped me pay for something really expensive."

"Don't worry about it, really. Just go ahead and see what this is."

Lance looked inside the bag and, seeing what it was, instantly decided that he was an idiot—there was no way Shiro could have ever thought badly of him and still thought to do this.

"It's kinetic sand," Shiro explained. "You told me something once, about how much you missed the feeling of the sand between your fingers? And since we do have to leave earth again once the castle-ship is repaired, I thought that if you took this with you—"

He stopped as soon as he noticed that Lance had begun to tear up.

"Hey, are you all right?"

He gave Allura an apologetic look, and then handed the bag back to Shiro. "Can I... talk to you outside for a second?"

"Of course you can," he replied. "We'll meet you back here as soon as possible, Princess."

Allura looked on with worry at Shiro and Lance as they walked away.

* * *

"Lance, what's wrong?" Shiro asked once they got outside of the mall.

An awkward silence weighed over both of them, and before Lance could gather the courage to answer, Shiro asked a new question: "Did I do something to upset you?"

"Not at all! Why would you..."

Lance's eyes widened briefly, and then he stopped and gazed downward. He didn't need feel the need to finish—he already knew exactly why Shiro would think that.

"It's just that, ever since this morning you've been acting strangely. You looked like you'd rather do anything else other than talk to me, and since we got here you'd seem happy one minute and then run away from me the next. After a while, I... started to think you didn't want me here."

"Oh my god, Shiro, I'm so sorry... this is actually why I wanted to talk to you," Lance admitted. "I wanted to apologize for all that."

"It's all right, just tell me what’s going on," Shiro said, his voice filled with genuine concern.

"I... kept acting all awkward because I was embarrassed." Lance slowly inhaled and let out a heavy breath. "Even though you helped me out before when I was, y'know, figuring stuff out... I still got this idea in my head that you wouldn't wanna hang out with me like this. That you'd think I was weird. But..."

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it and chose instead to let Lance finish first.

"You saw me acting like that and kept being so nice anyway, and then got me this gift because you remembered something I told you months ago. I realized that nobody would do that sort of thing for some annoying guy they didn’t really like.”

“I‘ve _never_ thought you were weird or annoying,” Shiro said softly and with a hint of surprise. “I consider everyone on this team, including you, to be my friends no matter what. If I didn't make that clear enough all along, I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"It's not your fault,” Lance sighed. “I'm the one who made myself think all this, not you."

"How so?"

"Well, because... I guess it's because you're—you're my hero." Lance recoiled out of disbelief that he'd admitted that, but now there was no taking it back. "I—I mean, you're just so cool and all. And I'm not anything special."

Shiro reached out and placed his hand on Lance's shoulder. "Lance, you brought all of us together," he said. "You helped save me when I first crash-landed on earth. You're the team's sharpshooter, a paladin of Voltron. You care _so much_ about everyone you meet. And you really think you're nothing special?"

Lance blushed as he began to laugh nervously. "I say some pretty stupid things, don't I?"

"Hey, don't say that about yourself. Nothing you say is stupid. Sure, you can be a little over the top," he said with an amused grin, "but you're not stupid. Not in the slightest."

"...Thanks, Shiro." Lance smiled back at him. "It feels good to hear you say that."

"I'm glad you're feeling better. But can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"You... really think  _I'm_ cool?" he asked bashfully.

"Are you kidding? _Everyone_ thinks you're cool!" Lance exclaimed.

Shiro couldn't help but laugh. "Are you sure you're not mixing me up with somebody else?"

"Dude, of course I'm not! Back at the Garrison, the whole school thought you were the coolest and strongest pilot ever! I always wanted to be like you. And then we ended up fighting evil across the galaxy together and you showed me that you're somehow more awesome than I already thought!"

Embarrassment spread all over Shiro's face before Lance had even gotten through the second sentence. "...Well, uh, thank you. I didn't know you felt that way."

"Oh, please, I don't doubt that the whole team would agree!"

Shiro didn't have a clue what to say, so instead he simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Thank you for talking to me about this."

Lance felt a weight that he'd been carrying all day lift from himself, and was free of anxiety as he gave Shiro a quick hug. "Thanks for listening."

"What was it you said this morning? 'No problemo, bro'?"

Lance instantly started laughing. "Yeah, that was it! And then I made finger guns at you, remember? Oh man, I must’ve looked so stu—"

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "I hope you were about to say 'stupendous', and not calling yourself stupid again.”

Lance rolled his eyes and pretended to be annoyed. "Right, sorry, _dad_."

"Well, we hould get back," Shiro said. "We wouldn't want Allura to worry too much."

* * *

The second Allura saw Lance and Shiro return, she waved at them happily and said, "You're back! Are you both feeling okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Lance confirmed. "Sorry for making you wait for us."

Shiro nodded in agreement. "I hope you weren't too worried."

"No, it's quite all right! Would you like to see what I bought while you were gone?"

"You kept shopping while we were gone?" Lance questioned.

"Well, I wasn't going to," she confessed, "but I saw somebody else wearing these amazing shoes and I had to get them for myself! They were available in the store right beside the one we were just in, so I was certain I'd be able to be back here before you did."

Allura took a pair of sparkly sneakers out of her bag and shook them, watching happily as they lit up and changed colors from pink, to blue, to purple, and back. "See? Aren't they wonderful?!"

"Hey, those are the bi pride colors!" Shiro pointed out. "I wonder if they have them in rainbow."

"Heck yeah! I might have to get me a pair!"

Lance then had a realization: "Shiro, have you bought anything for yourself?"

"Oh, I bought a new wallet earlier, but... I don't really shop for clothes much," he admitted. "I do like going shopping, and I enjoy looking around the mall, but I guess I just prefer bookstores when it comes to shopping for myself."

"Hey, can we go back to that toy store you said you were at?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Last time I was there, I saw this really big black and white cat plushie that looked like you! Allura and I are about to get it for you!"

Before Shiro could protest, Lance and Allura already began sprinting in the direction of the escalator, so Shiro shrugged and followed behind them with an amused look on his face.

"Ooh," Allura chimed in, "you know what else you should buy there? A fidget cube!"

"Huh? But you know I already have one," Lance said, pulling a blue and white cube out of his pocket.

"No, not for you, silly! For Keith! He's always doing this thing with his fingers—" she rubbed her thumb against her forefinger in an imitation of him— "so I bet he'd be able to use it!"

"Hey, you're right! I bet he'd want an edgy-looking red and black one."

"Wait, I have a better idea!" Shiro said. "What if you give Keith the fidget cube you have and get _yourself_ a red and black one? Then the colors will remind you of each other."

"That... actually is a better idea. Thanks, Shiro!"

All three of them laughed in unison.

"Dude, let's hang out more," Lance said. "All of us together, I mean, okay?"

"That's a wonderful idea," Allura said, Shiro nodding in agreement.

Looking at both of them, Lance made a note to himself to thank Allura for this later. Going to the mall may have been his own idea, but inviting Shiro was hers, and it had ended perfectly. Just this morning he'd felt intimidated by Shiro, the legendary pilot, but now he no longer knew why. Because, really, Shiro was just a normal guy who was a bit of a dad friend and happened to be able to take anything life threw at him—a fact which Allura surely already knew. What Lance hadn't realized, he was grateful that she had seen all along.

The three of them had a lot more in common than Lance could have ever imagined, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Lance hoped that they, and everyone else on Team Voltron, would be family no matter where in the galaxy they might be.

...And, secretly, he might have also hoped that he and Allura could convince Shiro to buy himself clothes that didn't all look basically the same. And dye his hair black so he didn't look twice his own age.

But those were things that could wait for another time. For now, Lance was already feeling pretty great.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this!! fun fact: it was said at a con once that dulce de leche, cookies and cream, and juniberry actually are lance, shiro, and allura's favorite ice cream flavors respectively!
> 
> also, i have to thank my best friend for thinking of the "buy-sexual" joke and my girlfriend for the concept of lance showing allura makeup. if you guys see this, you're the best <3


End file.
